Alpha Phonics

by Samuel L. Blumenfeld

Paradigm Company

This is one of my 100 Top Picks!

See the complete review in 100 Top Picks for Homeschool Curriculum.

Alpha Phonics provides straightforward phonics-based reading instruction in this single volume. It presents rules folowed by practice with syllables, words, and sentences. It first teaches "vowel-consanant"combinations such as "am" and "at." Then it adds beginning consonants to make words such as "Sam" and bat."

There's nothing fancy here; just solid instruction. Of course, you can (and probably should) add phonics bingo games, beginning readers, or other extras to make things more interesting. One particular extra that is very helpful is Alpha-Phonics/How to Tutor Workbook, which has fill-in-the-blank and writing activities to reinforce lessons in the Alpha Phonics book.

While the basic program would seem tailored for Perfect Paulas or Competent Carls, the simplicity of it actually makes it a good foundational program for other learners since it is very easy to supplement with appropriate learning style activities for all students.

You might want to try the CD-ROM version of the program: Alpha Phonics the Book on CD-ROM [$39.95] . It contains the same instructional material as the book, but it is presented with sound on the computer screen. Students make responses using the mouse rather than the keyboard.